Eels in polluted British rivers are getting high on cocaine
Digital Writer/Climate Change Reporter
Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 9:55 AM - European eels and cocaine, sausages and the World Cup, the end of a lobster boom and looming seafood trade war, and adjusting the hurricane scale due to worsening storms. It's What's Up in Climate Change.
Cocaine found in waterways harms at-risk European eels
City drinking water is becoming increasingly polluted with trace amounts of excreted hormones and drugs, and a new study from the Science of The Total Environment journal found that the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) could have trouble travelling European waterways to mate because they become “hyperactive” and suffer from skeletal muscle changes when exposed to cocaine, the most common illicit drug found in waterways.
The European eel plays an important role in the health of aquatic systems and is also harvested as a source of food. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The researchers exposed 150 male eels to micro amounts of cocaine that would be similar to the trace amounts found in waterways for 50 days and found that the eels experienced serious injuries, such as muscle breakdown and swelling which lasted for at least ten days after the cocaine exposure.
This eel species is currently critically endangered and could soon become extinct in the wild from overfishing, climate change induced habitat loss, and pollution, and suggests that many other aquatic species could suffer from human pollution. Over 90 per cent of eel farming internationally comes from this catching this species in the wild, and they play a critical role in maintaining the health of many fisheries. Their dwindling populations put not only the farmed eel industry at risk, but also the health of other species.
Drugs and other substances enter public water systems because of the widespread use of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other compounds and the variation in sewage treatment plants. While these compounds are detected in trace amounts there is currently insufficient evidence that humans are being affected.
Sausages are throwing off the World Cup’s carbon budget
Enthusiastic sausage consumption at the World Cup is prompting researchers to keep score of the tournament's carbon emissions.
The food that will feed the 1.5 million visitors flying into Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup will be a highlight of the experience and a big component of the game’s carbon budget. Experts estimate that the carbon emissions are expected to be over 2.1 million tons of carbon dioxide, with international travel contributing to over 74 per cent of the emissions.
Sausages are one of the most popular food choices during the matches at the World Cup. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
A German nutrition company, nu3, conducted a study using data from the UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) organization and found that nearly 25,000 sausages will be consumed during matches and will result in 200,000 kilograms of carbon emissions. It is estimated that over 1,900 hectors of Amazon rainforest would take one entire year to suck up this immense amount of carbon.
FIFA promotes climate change awareness on it's website, has committed to offsetting carbon emissions by supporting low-carbon projects in Russia and other countries around the world, and provides visitors tips for reducing their carbon footprint, such as encouraging public transportation services.
The crashing lobster boom could spark seafood trade war
The historic lobster industry in the Gulf of Maine has seen dramatic fluctuations over the past decades and the decline of the most recent population boom could have serious economic consequences for Atlantic fishing communities.
Lobsters are already an expensive food option, and climate change could make this delicacy unaffordable for many. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Lobsters are highly sensitive to ocean temperatures and warmer than normal temperatures induce respiratory and immune system complications - even a one degree increase can cause massive die-offs. The Gulf of Maine extends from Massachusetts to the southern tip of Nova Scotia and has warmed over 99 per cent faster than the rest of the world's oceans.
Warming ocean temperatures have caused lobster populations to rapidly populate and gradually move northward to cooler waters over the past few decades - and they carried the economic benefits with them. Between 1994 and 2014 the number of lobster landings in Maine increased by 219 per cent whereas declining populations in 1999 left approximately 70 per cent of lobstermen in New York and Connecticut with an annual income loss of 100 per cent. A decline in lobster abundance is already noticeable in New England, and a drop population drop between 40 to 62 per cent is expected in this region as temperatures continue to warm.
The changing climate means that countries with large seafood industries could see millions of dollars in fluctuations - the northward movement of lobster populations could increasingly benefit the Canadian industry whereas the American industry could suffer. China’s seafood industry has rapidly grown in recent years and is Canada’s second biggest importer of Canadian lobster and the biggest importer of American lobster. A seafood trade war could be exacerbated by international trading tensions - after Donald Trump’s recent increase in tariffs on Chinese imports in the United States, China is considering taxing American lobster exports.
Hurricane scale might need to be expanded because of worsening storms
The extremely damaging hurricane seasons in the past few years have had such record-breaking wind speeds that the current scale might need to be extended to rank the future monstrous storms that are sure to come.
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale includes categories between 1 and 5 to rank the potential property damage from a hurricane’s sustained wind speed. Increase in temperatures lets the air hold greater amounts of water vapour, which acts as a fuel for hurricanes, and scientists are predicting that hurricanes will release more intense and catastrophic amounts of precipitation in the future.
Before and after Hurricane Sandy, showing the destruction of grassland and subsequent flooding. Credit: NASA
The current scale ranks the most severe storms as category 5 which includes storms with wind speeds of 252 kilometres per hour (km/h) or greater - Hurricanes Katrina, Irma, and Maria had speeds of 280 km/h, 295 km/h, and 282 km/h, respectively.
In an interview with InsideClimate News, scientist Michael Mann says that a category 6 should be added to the scale because it would give a more accurate estimate of the hurricane risk, because a 16 km/h increase in sustained wind speeds increases damage potential by up to 20 per cent. In a CBC interview with Dennis Feltgen, a spokesperson for the National Hurricane Center, Feltgen states that a category 6 is not necessary because it would indicate nearly everything has been damaged that there wouldn’t even be a need for such category.
Sources: Science of The Total Environment | nu3 | Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection | InsideClimate News | CBC
